Congress, Politics, Books
and American History

Yale history professor Joanne Freeman and University of Chicago political science professor William Howell are interviewed about acts of violence in the U.S. Congress leading up to the Civil War, and congressional checks on war powers in the modern era. Professor Freeman is working on a book titled "Field of Blood: Congressional Violence in Antebellum America." Professor Howell has written about congressional checks on presidential war powers. The interview was recorded at the Organization of American Historians meeting in Milwaukee.

More Info »

On May 14, 1607, 104 English settlers landed on Jamestown island, Virginia to establish a colony for the Virginia Company.  Thought to be lost to history forever under the James River, the original fort was rediscovered in 1994 by archaeologist William Kelso.  In this program, we join Mr. Kelso for an “In the Trenches” tour as he explains how he unearthed the original fort. And we visit Bly Straube in the archaeology lab where more than 1.5 million artifacts are studied to help reveal what life was like inside Jamestown fort over 400 years ago.

More Info »

The history of the transition from slavery to freedom for African Americans is told at the Gilmore Cabin on the grounds of James Madison's Montpelier in Virginia.  Born a slave for President Madison in 1810, George Gilmore and his wife Polly raised five children on a small sharecropper farm after emancipation.  Built by George Gilmore and his sons, the cabin is one of only a few existing freedman's homes left standing in the United States.

More Info »

Chief Historian of the National Park Service Robert Sutton discusses how his organization is telling history in new ways by including more information about civilians and non-military events.

More Info »

 After a year of conservation treatments, the National Archives is returning a 1297 copy of the Magna Carta to public display. One of only four originals from 1297, the document is owned by Carlyle Group founder David Rubenstein but is on permanent loan to the archives. Partnering with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the archives designed a custom case to protect the fragile document.  In this event, the new encasement is unveiled and details of the project are discussed.

More Info »

Charles Colson – who served as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon –  died on Saturday at the age of 80. In 2007 and 2008, he sat down with Timothy Naftali of the Nixon Presidential Library for two extended oral history interviews.

More Info »

More Info »

Between 1861 and 1868, Clara Barton, known as the Angel of the Battlefield and founder of the American Red Cross, lived in a Washington, DC boarding house on 7th street, NW. She employed twelve clerks on the third floor in her "Missing Soldiers Office," where they received over 60,000 letters from families searching for lost sons and husbands.

More Info »

Del Quentin Wilber, author of “Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan,” met American History TV at the Washington Hilton to recreate the afternoon of March 30, 1981. On that day, John Hinckley fired six bullets at President Reagan, who had just completed a speech to the AFL-CIO. Using archival photographs and video, and declassified audio from the U.S. Secret Service, we trace the route of the presidential motorcade to The George Washington University Hospital.

More Info »

A film biography about United States Army General Douglas MacArthur who served in World War II as Commander of the Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific.  MacArthur’s military career came to a close in 1951 when President Harry S. Truman relieved him of his command.

More Info »